Power struggle on the field and on the air

TV VIEW:MICHAEL CHEIKA said before their Heineken Cup semi-final with Toulouse on Saturday that for Leinster to win then "we don't get hijacked by anything". He wasn't talking about the Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan's opportunism and his wish to replace Will Greenwood, Paul Wallace and Scott Quinnell with Brent Pope, George Hook and Tom McGurk on terrestrial television.

Who could ever forget Hook’s fulminations at the end of RTÉ’s last Heineken Cup series, when he signed off with a sermon on the network’s inability to hold on to rugby’s premier club event. Does the minister really want wall-to-wall rage?

Why not just take the best rugby competition (15 years old and already a crown jewel) in the Northern Hemisphere, where the provinces are able to keep their world-class players at home because they get good money from commercial agreements and have a politician blindly dance all over it.

Maybe five cent on a litre of petrol to keep Jamie Heaslip in Dublin. Sure. Why not? Ten euro on to the TV licence to stop Keith Earls going to France. Absolutely. Nice buzz words, “free-to-air”. It would have been nice to mention it to the IRFU first.

There were few convulsions on Sky Sports, who are likely to be the company who are asked to hand the matches over, although we didn’t get to see the changing rooms of the two defeated sides. Probably some rage there.

For the Irish mood the French continued to be our bete noir, the wreckers of our national upbeat disposition. The Six Nations, Thierry Henry, the Heineken Cup. Is there any end? Will we ever get over those artistic French. Will we ever get over Imanol Harinordquy’s face mask?

Harinordoquy arrived in from Biarritz with his recently-broken nose scaffolded with a protective covering of sponge and tape. After an early lineout the French number eight was all over the back of Munster lock Mick O’Driscoll.

“I don’t think Harinordoquy was asking him if he wanted tickets for The Phantom of the Opera,” quipped Sky commentator Miles Harrison, his first line from a steady stream of ones prepared earlier.

As Munster and Leinster departed the word from Wallace and Quinnell, former players who know about scrums, was a lack of Irish power. For once Munster’s audacity and their powerful pack didn’t come through. Ronan O’Gara was in no mood to talk around the bitter taste of defeat. Still perspiring and grazed from the match, O’Gara was tough on his team.

“Going by the second half the better team won. Lost for words. Don’t think we have any excuses. Our second-half performance might have been abysmal, maybe,” said the outhalf.

Paul Wallace continued the power discussion from Saturday and took it into yesterday’s game in San Sebastian. He specifically called the propping problem at half-time in Munster’s match.

“You saw Cian Healy yesterday,” said the former Ireland frontrow. “I think Tony Buckley. I think there has to be a call there. First five minutes (of second half) or even half-time.” On 56 minutes sure enough Buckley arrived on for John Hayes.

Stuart Barnes nailed it even before Leinster started their Saturday game with Toulouse. “No one doubts his ability,” said Barnes of Irish prop Healy. “They do question his ability to manage a scrum monster like Daan Human, who will target him.”

Thirty minutes later Cheika hauled the young loosehead ashore for Springbok CJ van der Linde as the Leinster scrum creaked and groaned. The final shot of Healy before he reappeared later in the match was sitting on the bench with a tracksuit pulled over his head. In such moments of self-doubt, it’s difficult to be philosophical.

Quinnell saw the general power issue plain as day at half-time in the Leinster game. “Don’t play rugby Toulouse. Use your power,” urged the former Welsh number eight. That’s far too practical for a French team littered with artists and for a coach like Guy Noves, who stood, sat and squatted through the entire match without moving a single facial muscle. Not Yannick Jauzion’s game-tipping try, nor the 14 points in five minutes in the second half, nor Maxime Medard’s sideburn homage to JPR Williams could shift the angst-riddled whiskers on Nove’s face.

No, no, no the theatrics were left to commentator Harrison, who pulled out another line straight from the training ground. “When they play like that Toulouse have a rhythm that even the finest orchestra would find it hard to match.” Suddenly, just as when Minister Ryan dipped in his oar, we were all feeling a little queasy again.